1994: Aaron Zelman Talks to the NRA Board

Earlier this week, JPFO took heat from some readers for criticizing the National
Rifle Association's defense of Dell Computers. Dell had, among other things,
cancelled an order because it came in on a letterhead containing the words
"combat handguns" (http://www.jpfo.org/alert20020305a.htm).
Some thought we were sowing dissent within the Second

Amendment movement. Some thought we were trying for push
people into making a choice between JPFO and the NRA.

It might surprise you to know that in 1994 (after America's battering by
the Brady Bill and in the year we were assaulted by the so-called "assault
weapons" ban), JPFO's executive director, Aaron Zelman, spoke to the NRA board
and made a series of recommendations on how to fight more effectively for
the Second Amendment. You can read that speech at http://www.jpfo.org/speech.htm.

Read it and -- with the hindsight of the last eight years --
ask yourself if America and America's gun owners would be
better off if the NRA had followed our advice. Instead, the
NRA continued its famous course of compromise politics. It
completely ignored recommendations that would have helped
bring back the Bill of Rights by winning the hearts and minds
of Americans.

We have to ask: Who is actually responsible if the gun-rights
movement is being divided? Is it people who work aggressively
for rights, or people who stick with politics as usual, even
when that's been a losing cause since at least 1934?

If the NRA doesn't want opposition from gun-rights supporters,
the solution is simple: Let it truly support gun rights. On the
day the NRA stops seeking compromises with our sworn enemies --
compromises that only encourage them to see us as weak and
vulnerable -- we'll stop criticizing the NRA.

If we can and do criticize the avowed enemies of gun rights
(people like Charles Schumer, Sarah Brady, or Rosie O'Donnell),
then even more should we criticize people who claim to support
the Second Amendment, but who use their power, their PR, and
their members' contributions to help erode our rights.

The Liberty Crew

PS: Please share this speech to the NRA Board of Directors with
as many people as you possibly can.

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